Apple OS X: The Safest OS?
| Published 11/03/04

 


Graphic by: Jenny Conner
The past year has been the deadliest annual period in terms of malware - viruses, trojans, and worms. According to a new study by mi2g, people who are serious about security should be running Mac OS X. The comprehensive study reveals that the world's most secure computing environment is Apple's OS X.

Researchers analyzed 235,907 successful digital breaches on 24/7 connected computers that occurred within the last twelve months. The study researched all kinds of computing environments, from home users, to small business, to medium-sized businesses, and even large businesses and organizations who have entire staffs devoted only to computer security. The results of the study were somewhat surprising.

In 2004, 32.7% of all digital breaches were carried out against home users. 58.8% of all digital breaches were against small businesses and organizations, 6.1% of all digital breaches were against medium sized businesses and organizations, and only 2.5% of all digital breaches were against large corporations and organizations.

Further surprising, the overall most breached system was Linux, which accounted for 65.64% of all breaches recorded. Linux is considered to be a very safe system, however, it accounted for 154,846 successful security breaches within the last year. A large number of Linux distributions were researched. Second was Windows, which accounted for 25.19% of all breaches. Windows, however, is still the number one system attacked by malware, after attacks by MyDoom, NetSky, SoBig, Sasser, and other viruses and worms. Mac OS X accounted for only 4.82% of breaches.

This is all good news for Apple, whose stocks have been rising lately - and passed Microsoft by more than 100%. "More and more smart individuals, government agencies, and corporations are shifting towards Apple environments in 2004," says mi2g chairman D.K. Matai. "There is an accelerating paradigm shift visible in 2004 and busy professionals have spotted the benefits of Apple because they don't have time to cope with the umpteen flavors of Linux or wait for Microsoft's Longhorn when Windows XP has proved to be a stumbling block in some well chronicled instances."

 

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